Defend Diversity at UT-Knoxville: Veto SB1912

The Legislature passed SB1912/HB2248 that removes funding from the Office for Diversity and Inclusion at the University of Tennessee-Knoxville. Sign this petition that we will deliver to Governor Haslam asking him to veto the bill.

Governor Haslam, we call on you to veto SB1912/HB2248 and protect the University of Tennessee-Knoxville's Office for Diversity and Inclusion. The office plays a vital role in making the university competitive for the best students, faculty, and staff and it makes campus life welcoming for all. Thank you for considering our views.

In the last two years or so the tensions between the people—students, faculty, staff, administrators— who see themselves as “normal,” in the center of the campus, and those who are left on its margins have popped off. We have intense protests, strikes, graffiti, nooses, and so much more happening on campuses across the country. What allows these groups to use education, dialogue, and reflection to guide interaction instead of letting tensions build and explode: the answer is in the Diversity Office on your campus. They do the research and find what works, what helps. They are a space of safety and trust and they go out onto their campuses to make pockets of safe space.

How could anyone possibly want to cut diversity programming THIS year. Have you not seen what is happening? Did you not see the superbowl halftime show and the “Formation” video that preceded it and the spoof(s) and columns that came after? The killings and abuses of trans people and people of color across the United States that have prompted intense frustration, anger, and organized movements?

I have worked on university campuses for two decades now. We need MORE support. Not less.